Many a user here on the forum can be found having trouble with installing programs on Linux Mint, because recommended packages are not automatically installed. Ubuntu on the other hand automatically installs recommended packages. Using a guide or tutorial for Ubuntu will thus not give you the desired outcome. Sometimes it may be just that some add-ons for the program aren't installed, limiting functionality but leaving the program otherwise working. However, I've helped quite a lot of people both here and on IRC that were left with completely non-functioning programs because recommended packages weren't installed.

If you don't mind using a few extra megabytes when installing a program (both in download and in hard disk usage) you can change the default behavior back to how Ubuntu handles this--automatically installing recommended packages when installing a program, giving you the best experience with the program with all its add-ons installed.

To change it back you just need to remove the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic, or comment out the two configuration lines found in those files. To delete the files run this command from a terminal:

Alternatively, when installing a program you can instruct to install the recommended packages just for this install. To install a program that way run this command on the terminal, replacing "program" with the (lowercase) name of the program you want to install:

Again, this is the default on Ubuntu and to my mind when you have a hard disk of hundreds of gigabytes and a fast Internet connection it really doesn't make sense to not install the recommended packages that give your program more functionality. One day you'll find yourself here back on the forum with a non-function just installed program, with me telling you to install the recommended packages to fix it

Last edited by xenopeek on Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason:updated to cover synaptic

I don't know the exact reason for this change, but I do see the fallout of it in problems users are having on the forums. Considering also that it by default gives you a program with less functionality, I think it's better to stick to the upstream default of always installing recommended packages.

... this has as main advantage, that it's easy to undo, because the settings file is not deleted but only moved to the root folder (from which it can be put back, if so desired). Plus the -v variable tells the user, what has happened.

Added the -v switch (I have that as a default alias on all commands that support it, hence I never type it ).

Looked into Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently setting. Default configuration ("apt-config dump" to see it; "man apt.conf" to read about the settings) ignores files with extension .disabled. So the better approach, if you want to be able to switch back, is to use:

xenopeek wrote:Many a user here on the forum can be found having trouble with installing programs on Linux Mint, because recommended packages are not automatically installed. Ubuntu on the other hand automatically installs recommended packages. Using a guide or tutorial for Ubuntu will thus not give you the desired outcome. Sometimes it may be just that some add-ons for the program aren't installed, limiting functionality but leaving the program otherwise working. However, I've helped quite a lot of people both here and on IRC that were left with completely non-functioning programs because recommended packages weren't installed.
...
One day you'll find yourself here back on the forum with a non-function just installed program, with me telling you to install the recommended packages to fix it

First, thanks for all the welcomes!

Second, this sounds like the answer! I'll get around to giving this a go sometime soon! Muchas gracias!! (Golf season ...)

Then you could query with the command "apt-cache depends packagename" what their recommended packages are and install those yourself or use the command "sudo apt-get install --install-recommends packagename" to reinstall the package along with installing recommended packages.

If you're not confused by programs you installed not work, perhaps don't bother with it. Obvious ones I've seen recently have been installing VirtualBox doesn't install the recommended graphical user interface so you can only it from the terminal. Another one was if for some reason you have trouble with VLC and remove it and then reinstall it, it doesn't install plugins to use PulseAudio for output. I don't think I've managed to get through to the developers that it's a silly thing to do, not installing recommended packages,

Hello,
I just tried to get the recommended packages to work on my system.
Running Linux Mint 17.2 AMD 64 bit cinnamon
I used the "sudo mv -v /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends.disabled" in a terminal,then rebooted,then checked the application I wanted to install with ""apt-cache depends packagename".To see what the recommended software was.

I then used the software manager to install the application,and it did not install any of the recommended software.

Specifically I am working on getting KDEnlive installed.(not that recommended packages actually made it work,but I still have other things to try)

Since that didnt work I used "sudo apt-get install --install-recommends program" and that worked.

I am just wondering why renaming the 00recommends file did not work.I have gone into the directory and the file is renamed to 00recommends.disabled
Did I do something wrong or miss a step?Is there is another way to make the software manager use recommended packages in the future?

Actually if a user launch Synaptic the program will create its system wide /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic file setting with APT::Install-Recommends set to false, overriding 00recommends setting. So whatever 00recommends setting value or file removed, 99synaptic will prevail, this might confuse a user enable to figure out why the tutorial fails to properly install recommended packages with 00recommends removed.

Laurent85 wrote:Actually if a user launch Synaptic the program will create its system wide /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic file setting with APT::Install-Recommends set to false, overriding 00recommends setting. So whatever 00recommends setting value or file removed, 99synaptic will prevail, this might confuse a user enable to figure out why the tutorial fails to properly install recommended packages with 00recommends removed.

That's the key!!!

I was wondering why my Cinnamon and MATE installs had both but my XFCE did not. I never ran synaptic on the XFCE install. Now that I did you are correct. I now have both files on all versions of Mint 17.3 and agree with your conclusion that fixing one doesn't fix both.

I've updated the original post. Some testing shows Synaptic copies the setting from /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic. If /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends doesn't exist it will write the default value to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic, which is to install recommended packages. So as long as you delete both of these files, or comment out the "APT::Install-Recommends" line in both, or edit them from value "false" to "true", you're all good and Synaptic won't mess things up.